At the age of 15, Jeffrey Banks was working as a salesman at the
menswear store Britches of Georgetown, where he had already been a
regular customer since he was 12. "He was surely the only high
school student in Washington, D.C., with his own subscriptions to
Daily News Record
and
Women's Wear Daily,
" recounts Jeffrey Trachtenberg in
Ralph Lauren: The Man Behind the Mystique.
Banks is the consummate clothing aficionado and stylist, one who is
positively obsessed with fashion. For some, apparel is simply the family
business or narcissist's self-realization. For Banks, clothing is
an ecstatic vocation.

A devoted movie fan since childhood, Banks has made his cinematic dream
come true in clothing that evokes the golden age of Hollywood, in
nuanced references to such stars as Audrey Hepburn (later a friend) and
in a styling of menswear in the tradition of the debonair man about
town. When Ralph Lauren visited Washington, Banks was chosen to pick him
up at the airport. Fully dressed in Lauren clothing, Banks appeared as a
precocious high school student and was asked by Lauren to come see him
for a job when he came to New York for design school. While still in art
school, Banks became Lauren's assistant and protégé in
fulfillment of his interpretation of the traditional in menswear and in
continuing development of his talents as a designer and stylist.

Banks subsequently designed furs for Alixandre, apprenticed with Calvin
Klein, and designed for Merona sportswear. Even at Merona, his style was
considered spectator sportswear, meaning the extended vision of
sportswear but also the sportswear edited by Banks' keen eye to
what is being worn and how it can be subtly improved. His deepest
affection has always been, however, the romantic tradition of tailored
clothing, a debonair style burnished by a sense of artisto nonchalance.
In sportswear, Banks' strong sense of color is notable, but even
for color his tailored clothing is his more natural medium. He calls
himself a romanticist, but the term is weak for one so smitten by a
passion for traditional clothing—a tradition that works for the
most conservative gentleman but can be assembled with panache for the
urbane sophisticate. Even more outside his own country, Banks'
clothing in Japan epitomizes the grand sensibility of menswear brought
into a fresh American focus.

Walt Whitman argued that American democracy promotes uniformity, even a
sense of unimportance in individual citizens. American menswear in the
second half of the 20th century was internationally effective in seeking
distinction within the homogeneity of modern appearance. Designers such
as Lauren and Banks addressed the social need for a traditional demeanor
that would not disturb the standard of uniformity, albeit with a kind of
smartness of detailing that is distinguished without being dandified.
Both have, of course, learned a great deal from images in film and
photography as well as keenly observing men of classic style. They then
reinterpreted and refined that style.

Some would argue that a designer's transformative skill is honed
in part by being an outsider—by observing that which cannot be
possessed in its present form and by inherently needing and seeking
change. Banks has given significant personal inflection to inbred,
rarefied traditions of menswear, often connoting class. His
customer— probably younger, because of his palette, than
Lauren's—buys not to climb socially but to fit into a
fantasy of best-dressed nattiness, perfect in effortless grooming, and
informal high style.

Yet Banks' preppy, "dressed for success" image
cannot be attributed to his look alone. The designer has more than just
fashion sense; he has a proven business sense. He learned many things
from his former mentor Ralph Lauren, and one was how to run a business.
Although most designers tried to make it on their sketches, hoping to
catch the eye of anyone who would look, Banks told
Black Enterprise
in June 1997, "Fashion is not art. It often comes very close,
but at the end of the day it's commerce."

Planning and investing have been key elements to success for Banks. He
may be one of a growing number of African American designers, but what
separates him from others is his ability to secure sales of his designs
to major department stores. Studies show African Americans spend more
money on clothing than any other race, yet only a handful of African
American designers have developed successful lines. Banks' $20
million companies, Jeffrey Banks Ltd. and Jeffrey Banks International,
speak volumes.

After a lengthy hiatus, Banks came back in full swing in the fall of
1998. Teaming up with liquor company Johnnie Walker, Banks extended his
line of rugged sportswear and accessories collection. Sold exclusively
in Bloomingdales, the collection's signature trademark resembled
a silhouette of a man in a top hat with a cane—not quite Johnnie
Walker's ever-popular scotch liquor label. "That is the
guy two years ago who wore his baseball cap backwards, drank beer out of
a can and wore baggy jeans," Banks explained to the
New York Times.
"He now wears a $1,000 suit and is working on Wall Street, and
he wants to look as good on the weekends as he does during the
week."

—RichardMartin;

updated by DianaIdzelis

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